Fiber artists donate stuffed animals to the club

SEQUIM – The Sequim unit of the Boys and Girls Clubs of the Olympic Peninsula welcomed 49 new pets when Monica Dixon of the Sequim Fiber Art Neighborhood Group delivered handmade plush animals to club members.

“This is going to be awesome,” said Tessa Jackson, unit manager. Kept animals “are very, very helpful right now, especially during COVID,” serving as emotional support for children.

Dixon said 16 members had worked on the stuffed animals for a year before the donation last Thursday.

“One lady made eight super cute and cuddly snakes,” she said, “and there are puppies, elephants, giraffes and lots of teddy bears.”

The Fiber Arts Group operates under the auspices of the Silverdale Chapter of the American Sewing Guild, which states on its website that it is the “only national organization dedicated to the advancement of sewing as a ‘art and skill of life “.

“ASG needs one community service project per year,” Dixon said. “Three years ago we donated 100 pairs of fleece pajama pants” to the club unit.

Last year, the group donated 150 pillow cases to the children on the unit.

The inspiration for this year’s donation was when they were discussing the finished pillowcase project on Zoom.

“I reached out and grabbed my giraffe – I told them, they’re really cool,” Dixon said.

She was delighted that the pattern only consisted of two pieces, so even inexperienced “dusters” (a combination of tailoring and artistry) can create a stuffed animal.

The motives came from Carolszoo.com, a business run by Carol Cruise of Rodeo, California.

“Carol enjoys doing charity work, so a member called and asked if it was okay to duplicate her designs in bulk,” Dixon said.

Normally, when a person buys a design, it is just for them to use it, not to reproduce it.

Cruise said yes, so several members each chose a model to buy and then shared it with the group.

Not all animals came from these models. Dixon said snakes weren’t and the dog was made from a 1950s pattern.

“We’re collecting tissue from leftover projects to turn them into these stuffed animals,” Dixon said.

Club members plan to keep more animals as there are more than 49 children at the club.

Jackson said she has a number of different ways of giving animals to children and that she will prioritize making sure they each have one.

Dixon said the women in the Fiber Arts group “played a huge role in how I was able to put together 9,800 masks in two months last year,” after a request for help from long-term healthcare facilities. term.

“I called the fiber arts girls, and they went,” Dixon said.

Members of her group reached out to other seamstresses they knew, and those reached out to others, and “they went into full-tilt boogey mode,” Dixon said.

“All I do is say, ‘Hey, I need help,’ and they all get everyone moving.”

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Emily Matthiessen is a reporter for the Olympic Peninsula News Group, which is made up of the newspapers from Sound Publishing, Peninsula Daily News, Sequim Gazette and Forks Forum. Contact her on emily.matthiessen@ sequimgazette.com.